The Oregon Oaxacan community celebrated its first Guelaguetza this weekend, inside a large sports arena in Salem. It was an extraordinary combination of indigenous dances,brass bands, food, crafts, and hundreds of enthusiastic spectators.For members of Whitman Direct Action who went to volunteer at the event, it meant 10 hours of very stimulating activity. Five hours into the event, one of us had to take a bathroom break, just to get her head cleared.

We arrived at the location at 1 pm after taking one wrong turn after exiting the I5. In hindsight, we should have brought a map of Salem and Woodburn from one of our past visits. It would have been helpful indeed.

You might say that our group’s search for a project has taken similar wrong turns, since we did not understand the political landscape of the Oaxacan community. However, the “map” we’ve received in the form of help and welcome from leaders of the Oaxacan community has been extremely helpful in getting us back on track.How did we arrive at the Guelaguetza? It’s a long story:

When WDA was searching for a new project last spring, Francisco Lopez, president of the Oregon Immigrants’ Rights Coalition, recommended that we work to unite the Oaxacan Home Town Associations in the Pacific Northwest. Since the 1980s, Oaxacans have immigrated to the Northwest in large numbers to work at agricultural jobs, often facing discrimination even from other Mexicans for their indigenous language and culture. The state of Oaxaca has seven distinct regions and many more distinct languages and cultures, as well as a turbulent political history. Oaxacan immigrant often face discrimination, even from other Mexicans, because of their indigenous heritage and language. Oaxacan immigrants from this area are also highly organized – many have formed associations to help development in their hometowns, (called “home town associations”, or “asociaciones”).

However, the home town associations in Oregon usually work alone, separated by different languages and political beliefs. As WDA met with Oaxacan leaders and community organizers in the Salem area this summer, many people echoed Francisco Lopez’s opinion that there is a need for different Oaxacan groups to unite. Unfortunatelyafter meeting with different groups and community organizers,we realized that Whitman Direct Action members were not the proper people to unite Oaxacan organizations, as outsiders who had no previous relationships or experience.

Fortunately, this project put us in contact with Donaciano Garcia, who is the leader of one of the Oaxacan home town associations, called Generación Barranca 2006. When we met in August, he shared his own plan to unite Oaxacans: by bringing a Guelaguetza to Oregon. A uniquely Oaxacan festival, the Guelaguetza is a month-long celebration of the state’s different indigenous cultures, held in the streets of the capital city. The festival honors and unites people from each of the seven traditional regions, as representatives perform each region’s traditional dances.

In the same way,Donaciono’s first planning meeting for the Oregon Guelaguetza brought together Oaxacan associations from many different regions and political backgrounds. Many of the Oaxacan home town associations had never met before. Only a month and a half later, the fruit of their work was a remarkable celebration of Oaxacan culture. Donaciano invited WDA members to volunteer, as well. For us, spending the day at the Guelaguetza was a wonderful experience,as we learned more about Oaxacan culture from people who welcomed us.

When we arrived on Saturday, Donaciano took a couple of minutes to introduce us to the man in-charge of assigning volunteers who put us to work printing and folding program handouts and selling tickets. The event was due to start at 2 and people were already streaming in. The event did not start until 2.45 pm. When one of the volunteers at the front desk expressed her surprise, her partner at the door said it was quite normal and acceptable. And really, no one was complaining. The organizers and volunteers were busy, and the spectators were happy to chat with people sitting next to them. It seemed like everybody knew everybody, even us.

After we were done printing and folding, a couple of us went to the children’s area where we were to assist the children as they undertook the creative tasks of drawing, painting or decorating masks. Often a child would want a mask, and we would still be drawing it out and cutting. They were surprisingly patient with us.

Once the event started, activity at the children’s area reduced significantly and we had a chance to watch the program ourselves. A Native American ceremony honoring the four directions and the mountains associated with each direction marked the beginning of the program. Drums, bells, heavy footsteps and singing with painted bodies and lots of symbolism, made the very first performance very powerful.

This was followed by every member organization on the Guelaguetza committee introducing their organization and inviting people to come to their booths for more information. Donaciano had told us that this event was more than a cultural gathering. He hoped that this event would provide people the opportunity to network and co-ordinate their efforts to develop their home state of Oaxaca. He believed that every Oaxacan child could have the ‘right NOT to immigrate’, if they could all promote education and development in their native villages. The organizing committee itself consisted of members from many different Oaxacan villages and had already provided Donaciano with the opportunity to connect with some of the leaders of these organizations. He hoped to extend that opportunity to all Oaxacans and also all people interested in Oaxaca.

A large platform in the middle of a massive basketball gym formed a stage, decorated with paper flowers, pineapples, fern fronds and corn stalks. The Guelaguetza is based on a pre-Columbian tradition of making an offering in exchange for a good harvest, especially of corn. Fittingly, a twenty-foot high arch of corn stalks decorated the entrance to the stage. As Donaciano put it, “A Guelaguetza is like Thanksgiving here in the USA”.

We enjoyed the first dance, since we had curiously watched its performers prepare their costumes at the table next to ours. A 16-member brass band struck up a brisk march as twenty “diablos”, wearing cowboy chaps, suit jacquets, and grinning, colorful devil’s faces loped onstage. The dancing devils were all Woodburn/Salem area men, originally from San Mateo, Tunuchi, who had spent months practicing the traditional Danza de los Diablitos. Some remembered performing at the Guelaguetza in Oaxaca as young men.

The dance was an opportunity to share traditions with a younger generation, too. Twelve-year-old Kevin hadjoined the group after learning about it from his great-uncle. “He brought me a mask all the way from Mexico and goat hair, which they glue to the dancer’s pants”(cowboy chaps), said Kevin. When asked whether the devils were friendly, Kevin’s great uncle laughed. Kevin asserted ‘I wasn’t scared.I liked how it looked. [It was] awesome!”.

Other dances were more solemn, such as a women’s dance presented by the group, “’’.. The woman explaining the dance shared her pride in being a traditional Zapotec woman, who was humble and obedient to her husband. The dance communicated women’s graceful, silent demeanor. There was the youthful dance where young men and women engaged in a flirtatious competition of the two genders. The last dance involved women dancing with pineapples, expressing gratitude for the harvest. Eventually the pineapples were given away among the spectators. This was followed by three bands that played for 45 minutes each. The chairs were all stacked away and everyone was invited to dance. The multi-generational nature of the event was evident. The stage had become a play ground for the children, while older couple and teenagers danced around it, enjoying the same music and the same dance movements.

Interspersed between dances, representatives of the Mexican government and each of the dance groups gave speeches to the crowd. One man urged to Oaxacans to take pride in their heritage, because the United States is a country that benefits from its diverse citizens. Another spoke to the indelibility of one’s heritage, saying, “though we come to the United States, we leave our hearts in Oaxaca. We should respect our heritage because nuestrasraizes son profundos” – our roots are deep”.

After a traditional dance was introduced in Zapotec, one of the major languages of Oaxaca, a representative spoke to the importance of preserving distinct identities: “Did you hear that sound? It is the sound you will hear in the Oaxacan pueblos that still maintain their language. As a Oaxacan, you are proud of where you come from, and respect your culture. I speak my pueblo’s language, even though I make mistakes, because I want to preserve our culture.”

For WDA members, the Guelaguetza was a reminder of something that we often de-emphasize or forget in college: heritage matters. Especially for groups like the indigenous performers, whose language and culture is endangered by globalization and the pressure to immigrate, it takes effort to preserve and protect it. It was inspiring to see all the young performers who were choosing to respect and honor their cultural traditions. Perhaps preservation also requires appreciation from others outside of a cultural group. At the Guelaguetza, we encountered many respectful attendees from other cultures, such as a woman from Brazil, a German visitor, and many Caucasian grandparents with their half-Oaxacan grandchildren enjoying the event. In addition, many families and young people from other areas of Mexico that do not celebrate the Guelaguetza attended and appreciated the chance to learn about Oaxaca.

Donaciano hopes to make this a yearly event, like it is in his home-state. In Oaxaca, people have to overcome geographic barriers to come together for the Guelaguetza. In Oregon, the barriers are socio-political. And though the event does not directly resolve differences, it allows people to interact on aspects of their lives that they hold in common, like cultural preservation, which may provide a firm foundation for negotiation of differences. Donaciano is hopeful, and so are we.

Hello Everyone,

Gauri, Kailey, Tim, and I arrived back in Walla Walla last night after a two-day trip down to Woodburn, OR to meet with Francisco Lopez and have our first appointments at the Mexican consulate and two Oaxacan leaders. We arrived Thursday afternoon and saw the PCUN office for the first time. It was a spacious building that was once an old Methodist church and had probably functioned as a house as well at some point in its rich history. Francisco told us many times in the course of a few days that he keeps telling the union to sell the building and get new offices: “They won’t do it!” he says; it has “too much sentimental value.”

After talking briefly with Francisco in the office about the basic operations of PCUN, CAUSA, and their sister organizations, he gave us the grand tour of Woodburn. We saw fields and restaurants, the Oregon Law Center, the town square, PCUN’s radio station, and the new and still under-construction farm labor housing the union had such a strong hand in building. After the tour, we returned to PCUN’s conference room and hashed out more project details, as well as went over who we were meeting with the next day and our objectives for each meeting. We came up with a to-do list of both short and long-term goals, and the most detailed timeline for our project yet. Naturally, the most exciting part of a very compelling meeting was when we discussed our trip to Oaxaca, scheduled for January 2010. Francisco talked about how “then we would see and really feel” the reasons for this project of empowering Oaxacans on both sides of the border: simply so that they can create better lives for their people.

The next morning we drove up to Portland to meet with Ursula Rojas at the Mexican Consulate, who heads the Institute for Mexicans Abroad (IME) in Oregon. She told us the institute exists to foster a close and beneficial relationship with Mexican communities abroad and to allow the diaspora to influence public policy back in Mexico. Since IME is part of the Mexican government, it was fascinating and informative to here the government’s take on Mexican immigration to El Norte. She also talked to us about the government’s 3×1 Development Program, where Hometown Associations (HTAs) put up 25% of the cost for a project that could range from infrastructure construction to planting trees or starting businesses, and different levels of the government provide the other 75% of funding. We learned that there are seven known Oaxacan HTAs in Oregon, which was very exciting news. Approximately 11% of the counted 350,000 migrants in Oregon are Oaxacan, and the Portland Consulate is 5th in the nation in the number of registered Oaxacans.

Also present at the consulate meeting was an enthusiastic Oaxacan immigrant named Donaciano Garcia who founded Generacion Barranca 2006. Barranca is Garcia’s hometown, and the organization, though not exactly an HTA by an academic definition, is very similar (I have a feeling it will become apparent quickly that there is no exact model for Oaxacan HTAS, which may actually be beneficial to the project. It just means the different groups will have that much more to offer each other). Comprised of friends and family members, GB2006 sustained itself through $50 a month dues and fundraisers like car washes and “adopt-a-child” style programs at Garcia’s church. The organization believes that the children of Barranca are the future; hope so that one day, “none of us will have to work in the fields anymore.” They are investing as much as possible in the children’s education, and have delivered five new computers to the school, as well as 70 bicycles so that students don’t have to walk so long to get to school, or to Oaxaca City to do their homework, and also planted 120 fruit trees. Some future goals are so modest as to be humbling: Garcia wants to get to two water fountains so that the children don’t have to risk getting sick from drinking out of the same bucket with one cup anymore. Others are ambitious and accomplish the exact same thing: “It is my dream to see a university there one day,” he says, beaming. Garcia’s passion for his work was evident and contagious. When we told him we were visiting Oaxaca in January he graciously invited us to come visit Barranca. “Together, we will walk,” he said, showing us a picture of the winding dirt road leading to the village with children running ahead of the camera, “and you will see.”

For the last meeting of the day the WDA team and Francisco drove back to Woodburn to meet Carmen Ramirez for lunch at Luis’s (Obama stopped there for lunch on the campaign trail; we had to try it). Carmen is an Oaxacan immigrant who organizes for PCUN, as well as volunteers her services as an indigenous translator for both the consulate and the Oregon Law Center. One of her largest projects right now is fighting sexual harassment in the fields and workplace through educational campaigns aimed at both men and women. She told us, with Francisco and Kailey doing excellent translation work, of the discrimination that the indigenous Oaxacans face in the larger Mexican community in both the U.S. and Mexico. Furthermore, the language barrier often prevents migrants from knowing their rights, or that they have any rights at all anywhere along their northward journey (most Oaxacans migrate slowly northward in step movements, working and saving money as they go for the eventual border crossing). She told us the story of a single father and friend whose young boy lost an arm to a reckless rancher’s son in a pickup in Guerrero, Mexico. They were refused health care several times for being poor and indigenous. The father couldn’t go to court because he doesn’t speak Spanish, and the pesos the rancher gave him aren’t even enough to buy a prosthetic limb. “It breaks my heart,” she says, “and there are many like this. It makes me feel and this is why I help my community . . . I am a mother, and this is no tragedy any parent should have to suffer.” She also explained to us many facets of Oaxacan culture and how the indigenous community inherently runs up against the established system, the one-time colonizer. “And it’s even worse when they don’t speak the language,” she tells us, “so hard to survive.” Finally, she explained the frustration she feels with the Mexican government and the current migrant condition: “They say Mexico is fine, we won’t be affected by the crisis . . . This is wrong. We indigenous people, we are being hurt the worst. They can lay us off without a reason, without any compensation, and we are in the street with nowhere to go, unable to apply for benefits, unable to feed our families.”

When we questioned all three of the kind people that spoke to us about the role WDA and CAUSA could play in assisting Oaxacan organizations, all three spoke of the need for greater collaboration between Oaxacan groups and involved institutions. Carmen pointed out that most migrants want to help, to try to make things better, but they aren’t specialists and don’t know where to start. “You will see,” Francisco told us, “they all want the same thing. They just need a little push.”

Today, Tim explained why he felt the trip was so important and why WDA is on the right track:

I think this trip was especially valuable because, in a relatively short amount of time, we were able to see the complex diversity of perspectives and priorities of the various community partners we will be working with to form a network. These differences illuminate how one of the main challenges of our project may be identifying and emphasizing the common agendas that can serve as a foundation for collaboration. The fact that hometown association goals and projects may be somewhat fragmented in their current state of autonomy also points to need for bringing the various parties together for constructive dialog and cooperative planning, as this project is designed to do.

Gauri also talked about the personal benefits of the short trip for her:

This trip really helped ground the project for me. Everything from revising and finishing the concept paper to meeting people who had worked in the fields really helped get me excited for the project. The fact that Garcia’s organization had plenty of members and human support, but struggled putting together material and developing a logo, while we have an abundance of material but were struggling with membership until recently, made me realize that we have a lot to learn and a lot to offer too.

Before this trip, I think many of us in WDA were struggling with the feeling that this project didn’t have as much of a human aspect or wouldn’t have as much of a direct impact. After spending only two days actually looking at places where migrants live and talking migrants and those who work with them, that feeling is no longer a problem. The talks we had with Ursula, Garcia, and Carmen were inspiring, intentional or not. We’re very excited that the project is finally taking off and had such a good start.

Peace,

John

Immigrant communities face a variety of problems, including a lack of social, economic, and political security that has only been exacerbated by the recent economic downturn. They face problems such as discrimination, atrocious working conditions, legal issues, and difficulty finding housing and jobs, and they have few or no means of redressing these problems. Furthermore, these challenges extend back to the communities of origin, where people suffer from economic stagnation, lack of educational opportunities, poor health care, and a shortage of the technology necessary to move upward in the world.

This year, WDA decided to embark on a project that would work to address these problems, based on the guidance of the communities themselves. Through discourse with Francisco Lopez, the head of the immigrant rights group CAUSA, we discovered that while there are many extant organizations that serve the needs of immigrants, they are often working in isolation or only in conjunction with a few other local groups. The groups we talked to wanted to discover and establish connections between the current hometown associations (HTAs), non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the governments themselves, and a variety of other charitable, educational, and legal institutions that are highly involved in immigrant affairs. Such connections are eminently important because they allow groups to work together while increasing their capacity to serve; empowering them politically, socially, and economically; and allowing them to concentrate not only on development in countries of origin but also on integration into US communities.

WDA and CAUSA developed a project that will address this need for connection in the community of Pacific Northwest HTAs, NGOs, and other organizations working with immigrants from Oaxaca, Mexico. The project has two main components. First, WDA will map all the Oaxacan organizations in Washington and Oregon, both based on their areas of origin and on the services provided and projects undertaken. This will occur both in travel and meetings throughout the Pacific Northwest and in a research trip to visit sending communities in Oaxaca to gather information on the impacts of HTA and NGO projects in January 2010. We will also gather input on the role WDA and CAUSA can play in assisting these organizations, how cooperation between involved organizations would manifest itself, and how they would like to see a cooperative network structured. This research will be followed by the organization of a summit of leaders of HTAs, NGOs, and Oaxacan communities, along with representatives from both governments and other organizations. In this summit, the creation of a federation of these groups will be formalized by the creation of bilateral agreements between Oaxacan leaders and the associations in the Pacific Northwest, linking them all together.

We chose this project for several reasons. Hometown associations are a relatively untapped resource for integration, and most studies concentrate more on their development work in Mexico. Harnessing this potential could allow HTAs to increase their capacity to assist their communities in a variety of ways, such as helping them access legal aid, aiding with translation in Spanish and the large variety of indigenous languages spoken by many immigrants, providing youth and adult education, linking them to health care, and helping migrants stand up for their rights against discrimination in the neighborhood, workplace, and legal system. We specifically chose to work with Oaxacan HTAs and NGOs because they are already well-established, although not well-connected, and thus the creation of a network of these organizations would work well as a template for further networking in different areas of the US and Mexico.

To find out more about the Transnational Community Development Initiative, we strongly encourage you to read the concept paper, which describes the project’s background, timeline, and impact in greater detail. We also encourage you to visit the websites of our partners in this project: CAUSA, Oregon’s Immigrant Rights Coalition; and PCUN, the union of Northwest treeplanters and farmworkers.

As you can see, whitmandirectaction.org has a new layout, though much of the wonderful content you love has remained the same. There are some new updates on the about us and projects pages, mostly related to our nascent Transnational Community Development Initiative, which now has its very own page! Since this is a new layout, it is quite possible that there may still be some bugs to work out, so please don’t hesitate to contact us about any problems you may find.

I’m also pleased to report that we’ve been working hard on setting up our new project, and that our fundraising auctions on October 24th and 25th went very well. Many thanks to everyone who donated items and services, and to all those who bought something at the auction!

- Kailey